Monday, September 03, 2018

Union leaders have *clout* in NAFTA

So unions ARE playing a role in NAFTA negotiations.

From the article:

After unions played a role in ousting the Harper government in 2015, Dias said the Liberal government appears to understand the influence of the labour movement in politics.
"I think they understand that labour is not just a nuisance; that we actually have a voice, we represent millions of people and we're going to play a big role in the politics of the country," he said. "They have a choice. They can exclude us and then we will exclude them, or they can include us."
So, no need for elections anymore, people. Organized labour will tell us the way it's gonna go.

Wow. Just wow.

canadianna 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

old white guy says----------------yep, the unions run the government of canada.

Fred from BC said...

Easily dealt with, I think. Churches and charities are already forbidden from political activity, there are limits placed on third-party political organizations...just enact new legislation to forbid unions from interfering in government business.

Miles Lunn said...

If business is excluded this is not good as you will get a one sided approach which we don't need. Now if unions are just one of the many stakeholders involved, I am okay as long as they don't have undue influence. I would be interested to see a list of all groups included to see if fair or not, but certainly hope Jerry Dias is not the one driving negotiations or we are in big trouble.

Canadianna said...

old white guy -- too true.

Fred, it's a good idea in principle, but in practice, unions do a lot of communication with their membership that is political -- most of it is political in some sense because they are lobbying for laws and regulations, but it probably doesn't fall inside the realm of election spending because it's part of their business. They have to be able to communicate with their membership effectively. Besides, any party that enacted such a law would be afraid they would never be elected again ... unions are powerful by virtue of their numbers and although not all members participate in groupthink, people tend to vote for their own interests -- if you're in a union, you'll likely side with the union. Not 100%, obviously, but a majority.

Miles, unless you know the players, I don't think we can really know who is there and their *official* role. But Dias appears to have significant voice.

dmorris said...

"Along with calls to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, Trudeau reached out to two of Canada's most powerful union leaders -- Dias and Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress"

Brian Mulroney has done more to help Justin Trudeau than he ever did for Stephen Harper. Never refer to the SOB as a Conservative in my presence!
Trudeau lobbies for the power elite and the dairy cartel, Dias lobbies for Great Big Union, Freeland lobbies for gays,transexuals, and gender equality in trade negotiations, so just who lobbies for the average Canadian?
No one.

Canadianna said...

Doesn't look promising, does it, dmorris? Mulroney's vendetta against Harper was crazy... country before ego, but no. Not him.

Listening to Trudeau the last day or so, this is not going to go well... and watching the polls, people will forgive because they blame Trump. It's exhausting how ill-informed some voters are.